nbc's jim maceda. let's go from there now to nbc's kristen welker following the latest developments from the white house for us. kristen, what are you hearing from the obama administration and all the options that it may be considering? >> reporter: well, alex, a little bit of breaking news at this hour. according to a senior defense official, defense secretary chuck hagel, had a it telephone conversation with his counterpart today. we're still waiting to get details about what specifically was said during that conversation. but, of course, the white house monitoring the situation quite closely, in consultation with its partners abroad. for days, the administration has been warning russia against intervening in ukraine. of course, on friday, it was clear that that diplomatic strategy had failed, so president obama came out with a strong warning to russia not to ramp this up any further. he said there would be costs. here's a little bit more of what he had to say. take a listen. >> throughout this crisi